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'Perhaps humankind can't bear too much reality, but neither can it bear too much unreality, too much abuse of the truth.' (Saul Bellow)

'448 OMAR KHAYYÁM Omar had a personality; I, for better or worse, have none. In an hour I’ll have strayed from what I am at this moment; tomorrow I’ll have forgotten what I am today. Those who are who they are, like Omar, live in just one world, the external one. Those who aren’t who they are, like me, live not only in the external world but also in a diversified, ever-changing inner world. Try as we might, we could never have the same philosophy as Omar’s. I harbour in me, like unwanted souls, the very philosophies I criticize. Omar could reject them all, for they were all external to him, but I can’t reject them, because they’re me.' (F Pessoa)

'Mrs Glass looked over, abstractedly, at the blue bathmat, across the tiled floor. Zooey stood as still as possible, in order not to break her mood. "You can't live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes," Mrs Glass said to the bathmat, then turned again toward Zooey and gave him a long look, with very little, if any, morality in it. "Regardless of what you may think, young man," she said.' (JD Salinger)

'Art only begins where imitation ends.' (Oscar Wilde)

'"I like zooey's blog," Steiner would say, "It's the only internet site with a foyer. Saul and I often meet there, by the ethereal kiosk. The ice-cream is splendid."' (ThetisMercurio)

'What is the use of telling people repeatedly that the Society is not a sect and then behave as if it were one?' (Steiner)

'Laughter means distance. Where laughter is absent, madness begins. The moment one takes the world with complete seriousness one is potentially insane.' (Jens Bjørneboe)

'If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.' (Oscar Wilde)

'Let's act like sphinxes, however falsely, until we reach the point of no longer knowing who we are. For we are, in fact, false sphinxes, with no idea of what we are in reality. The only way to be in agreement with life is to disagree with ourselves. Absurdity is divine.' (F Pessoa)

the basics

the posts on this blog are written by alicia hamberg, with the guidance of mr dog, canineosophist, and with inspiration from rudolf steiner, anthroposophist, and the rest of our friends, people, dogs and various strange beings who hang out with us in this extraordinary ethereal kiosk

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anthroposophical atheism

another example of an anthroposophical kind of atheism found in an old edition of Info3 magazine. God is a projection of man’s inner needs, and so forth. I find this interesting, although not entirely surprising. Of course, to some anthroposophists, denying god seems to be an abomination (they prefer to ignore that Steiner, too, in his youth denied god, saying god is nothing supernatural but the creation of man; later Steiner turned to theosophy and spirituality and a belief in the supersensible and he started to dabble in notions of Christ… and, by the way, there’s an interesting discussion on waldorf critics on how Steiner clairvoyantly saw this Christ stuff). I’m not at all sure how commn belief in a personal god is among anthroposophists. Clearly there’s everything from godliness to godlessness. The inclination towards mythology may be in common, but, then again, I guess mythology, in some form, is inevitable (sorry, just babbling — am surprisingly tired, thought I ought to post something and resurrected this unposted post for this very purpose). Here’s the quote anyway.

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4 thoughts on “anthroposophical atheism”

Anthroposophy or being an anthroposophist (ridiculous appelation) is not a matter of holding onto particular beliefs. To be a member of the Anthro Society one has to simply agree that it is a good thing that there is a school of spiritual science at the Goetheanum in Dornach. It is only when one applies to join the School of Spiritual Science (often called the ‘First Class’ – because it was the first in a projected series) that one commits to more than this. One then commits to ‘standing for anthroposophy in the world’, and not to share the meditations with anyone who isn’t a member.
Now how one interprets ‘standing for anthroposophy in the world’, is open to debate. It isn’t predicated on subscribing to any particular set of beliefs.
So it doesn’t surprise me that there are anthros who are atheists.

As a matter of fact one would find that anthros do share many beliefs but this is not a necessary condition of them calling themselves anthroposophists.

I’ll come back to this later: but yes, right. I don’t think it should be surprising there are atheist anthros. But I’ve come across anthros who find this unthinkable. However, they seem to think atheist is a horrible person who denies the existence of everything that is not measurable… Like beauty or whatever. As though belief in god were a prerequisite of lots of other things that are deemed good. If they detached the concept of atheism from these emotions (and prejudices) they have about people who are atheists, perhaps it would be different. But, as far as I can tell, some people have misunderstood atheism and don’t understand that all it means is: the conviction there is no God. Or Gods. Other than as man-made constructs.

‘To be a member of the Anthro Society one has to simply agree that it is a good thing that there is a school of spiritual science at the Goetheanum in Dornach.’

You don’t even have to think it’s ‘good’, only that it’s ‘justified’, i e the existence of Goethanum. Not exactly difficult to agree with.

‘One then commits to ‘standing for anthroposophy in the world’, and not to share the meditations with anyone who isn’t a member.’

The second requirement has become obsolete now, since the lessons are (more or less) openly available. Not that this should be any cause of concern anyway. I’ve been able to share them for years, but not one soul is interested ;-)

But, as you point out, ‘standing for anthroposophy in the world’, is not precisely a clear-cut formulation. It could be interpreted in many ways; lots of things could be incorporated in ‘standing for’. If generously interpreted, one could say that that’s what I do, too. Said half-jokingly, but still. I’m not prepared to rule that interpretation out just because some anthroposophists presume I’m on a ‘hate crusade’ (hey, Sune!).

But anthroposophists who are not atheists (ie, I think, most) and who think that Steiner’s life path was just a progression towards higher insights, a development of what he’d worked on before the turn to theosophy, and that he was always clairvoyant would have a difficult time squaring this picture of Steiner with their picture of Steiner. Especially if they also think atheist is a horrible person who lacks all insights; and that atheism is somehow incompatible with some kind of spirituality (oh, no, that word again — of course, it can mean anything or nothing at all). Anyway, I’ve posted this text on several occasions (for example on the critics list when anthroposophists have doubted that Steiner would ever have expressed an atheist viewpoint), and I’m not sure I ever got a recognition from any one of these anthros that, indeed, the young Steiner was really very atheistic. I don’t think there’s been a response at all ;-) I’ve seen arguments, though, that Steiner remained an atheist all his life. It’s an interesting question, I think, if he ever believed that gods existed outside the minds of humans. (Maybe there’s a real simple answer to this, an answer I ought to know, or be able to quickly deduce from the stuff I do know, but I’ve got to run.)